Movie Reaction: Tully

Formula: Mary Poppins / Young Adult

I don't know where I land with Diablo Cody. She's certainly become a brand unto herself. Most people still associate her the most with Juno, which is a great example of a movie that is too aware of how hip it's trying to be. You know what though, I quite enjoyed Juno when I saw it. It's a fresh take on a teen pregnancy story and has great performances. Jennifer's Body isn't a classic by any means, however it's a fun take on a female friendship that knew how to use its lead actresses. I didn't want to see Young Adult very much. It looked ugly, and it was. Charlize Theron is a train wreck in it. The ending won me over with how committed it was to leaving things on an unflattering note. I haven't watched United States of Tara or One Mississippi. I do know that they both are female-centric and revel in how messy life can be. Those are the hallmarks of Diablo Cody's work: female leads and willing to play in the mud.

Tully fits right into Diablo Cody's comfort zone. It's the story of Marlo (Charlize Theron): a mother who just gave birth to her third child and is completely burned out. I suppose it's postpartum depression, or maybe it's a broader feeling of emptiness. Whatever it is, she needs help. So, she accepts a gift from her brother - a night nanny named Tully (Mackenzie Davis) - who watches over the baby at night so Marlo can recharge. Beyond that, Tully is there to help Marlo get out of this funk.

Tully gets a lot of the mundane things right. I know this because every mother in the theater reacted strongly to a lot of these mundane moments. I am neither a woman nor a parent. I can't speak from firsthand experience about either. The movie feels pretty accurate though. It's not a flattering look at motherhood, but, like in life, there are good moments that go along with the bad ones.

What I really liked is that the movie was willing to leave Marlo's orbit occasionally and peek into another character's life. For example, early in the movie, Marlo and her husband (Ron Livingston) are complaining about having to visit her brother (Mark Duplass). They feel like he's always judging the way they live and her husband is convinced that her brother hates him. Later, there's a brief scene with just Marlo's brother and his wife (Elaine Tan) in which they have the exact same conversation about Marlo and her husband. There's a bunch of moments like that and they help to make the movie more than "Motherhood is a nightmare".

Charlize Theron is terrific. I felt tired for her the whole time. Ron Livingston pulls off the father and husband who has settled into the rhythms of a stable life. Sure, he could be more helpful, but he's not presented as a monster. The kids are mostly there to be annoying and, well, mission accomplished. Mackenzie Davis plays Tully as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but it doesn't feel as egregious in this setting.

It's tricky talking about the movie. The things I didn't like about it almost all tie into things you'd need to see the movie first to talk about. I found a lot of the movie to be off-putting. This is intentional. The payoff isn't quite enough to make it worth it for me. In fact, I kind of rolled my eyes when I realized what the movie was doing.

I love that there is a Diablo Cody writing movies like this and that she has director Jason Reitman as a creative partner who is on the same page as her. However, the worlds she creates aren't ones that I love to revisit. Tully has unimpeachable performances and works better the smaller it is. It's when it tries to be clever that it doesn't work as well.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

After the Credits

(A few thoughts for those who have seen the movie or don't care about it being spoiled)

I avoided using the word "twist" in my proper Reaction, because this is the kind of movie in which there's only one possible twist. Knowing that there is a twist is, in fact, the twist. In this case, the twist is that Tully isn't real. I don't know the exact moment when I figured it out. Most of the time with twists, I see the germ of the idea early, then spend most of the movie convincing myself "No, they wouldn't do that. That would be stupid".

Here's the problem with having a ghost character: writing around one requires a lot of conceits. For one, if the movie wants me to buy into the husband as a worthwhile guy, then it seems pretty strange that he wouldn't ever come down to meet Tully or even notice that his wife basically hasn't been sleeping for weeks. It also requires that no one visits the house and that none of the kids wake up to get a glass of water in the middle of the night. Any conversation Marlo and Tully have when they go to New York turns into me wondering if she's actually just sitting there quietly thinking all this or if Marlo is talking out loud to herself as a crazy person.

I'm not sure how else the movie could've made its point about how much pressure a mother has to be a "super mom". Perhaps making it a big reveal is what bothered me. Would it be that different if the audience got to see the cracks earlier? I don't know. Putting the film in the service of a twist cheapened it for me.